CHICAGO — Doug Emhoff was verklempt . It had been less than 48 hours since his goofy, warm and well-received speech at the Democratic National Convention, and he was in a room full of Jewish Democrats cheering for him to become “First Mensch.”
His wife, Vice President Kamala Harris, was soon to accept the party’s presidential nomination and it was their anniversary — 10 years since they’d “shattered a glass at their wedding,” pointed out Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, which she called “a good foreshadowing of the glass ceiling that we’re all going to help her shatter in 73 days.”
The room was full, and Emhoff was full of emotion. “I think I know most of you,” he said. “I could go around and say ‘Hi’ to literally every single one of you.”
The event Thursday afternoon on the sixth floor of the Jewish Federation building in downtown Chicago was supposed to be a serious panel discussion of antisemitism on campus followed by a briefing by the families of Israeli hostages still held by Hamas. But when Emhoff decided to stop by — his first hobnobbing with the hoi polloi during this week’s convention — it took on the air of a bar mitzvah, complete with a mini-smorgasbord of ceviche shooters, brisket tostada bites and tahini chicken skewers.
“This is all great, but we haven’t won anything yet,” Emhoff, who wore a jacket but no tie, said as the crowd enveloped him with a standing ovation.
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His remarks, which lasted nearly a half-hour, covered familiar ground: His pilgrimage to the town his ancestors fled, in what is now Poland, where there are no longer any Jews. His outrage upon seeing a “Kanye was right” banner on the 405 freeway in Los Angeles and how his wife urged him to “do something about it.” His work on the first-ever National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism and post-Oct. 7 convenings regarding Jewish students’ safety on campus. The historic mezuzah — “mezuzot, actually, there are two,” he said — he had installed at the Naval Observatory, where vice presidents have lived with their families for half a century.
But if the substance was familiar, the tone seemed different. It was all somehow bigger now, pumped full of more meaning, a different energy.
“I’m gonna be open, I’m gonna be prideful, I’m gonna be joyful and I’m gonna do it all without fear,” Emhoff said. “I’m gonna do it with somebody who loves me and everything about me — including the fact that I’m Jewish.”
In the years since he made history as the first second gentleman — and the first Jewish principal in the White House — Emhoff has become “a Jewish rock star,” Soifer said. Jewish aides on Capitol Hill stop him for selfies — as do patrons of kosher restaurants around the world.
On Thursday, Emhoff sounded vulnerable as he shared the story of an Oct. 11 meeting with Jewish leaders to check in on the antisemitism strategy, which had been announced months before. The meeting was scheduled before Oct. 7.
After the terror attack, “there was some discussion about whether to have the meeting,” Emhoff recalled. “Kamala Harris and Joe Biden said, ‘We need to do this, and you, second gentleman, need to get out there.’
“I did not want to do that. I didn’t think I was emotionally ready to do that. She said to me, ‘If not you, who?’” Emhoff said, a twist on the famous Hillel proverb.
“Right before I went out, President Biden walked in,” Emhoff continued. “He just came right up to me, put his hand on my forearm, looked me in the eyes and said, ‘Are you OK, kid?’ I said, ‘No, I’m not, I’m not.’ He said, ‘Well, just get out there and tell them how you feel.’”
Which might be what Doug Emhoff does best.
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